RECENT POSTS

When EQD circuit builder Josh Novak isn’t making pedals, he shreds with Akron-based prog-punks (and meme masters) Actual Form. “In The Food Court of the Crimson King” is a happy-meal sized nugget of rock - an entire 70s prog LP’s-worth of twists and turns stuffed into just under three-and-a-half-minutes and served on a toasted sesame seed bun…

For more than a decade Justin Pearson (Dead Cross, Retox, Head Wound City) and Joey Karam (One Day as a Lion) have attacked eardrums and melted faces with their deconstructed avant-grindcore assault as members of the Locust. We recently met up with Justin and Joey at an undisclosed Los Angeles locale to concoct some Plague Soundscapes of our own…

Elle Puckett of Eisley and Maggie Rogers’ touring band calls upon a carefully selected collection of boutique stompboxes including the Avalanche Run, Spatial Delivery, and the occasional Altiods tin to craft the ambient tones for which she is known.

The former Big Business guitarist and regular Melvins collaborator has a long history of engineering and/or producing top-tier rock bands - the bathroom in his Sound of Sirens studio is decorated with platinum records honoring his contribution to albums by Foo Fighters and Tool…

For someone who didn’t grow up with grunge or ‘90s alternative rock, Alicia and her bandmates in Bully have managed to make one of the most exciting, ‘90s grunge/alternative rock records I’ve heard since – well, the ‘90s. Maybe even before that…

It’s been fifteen years since Fugazi last performed, but their improvisational impulses remain intact in the Messthetics, a jazz-inspired group led by virtuoso guitarist Anthony Pirog and featuring Fugazi’s unmistakably muscular rhythm section of bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty…

Spotlights are loud. We caught up with bassist Sarah Quintero before the band’s performance at Mahall’s in Lakewood, OH, to shine a light on the deluge of distortion and fuzz pedals she uses to saturate the low frequencies which drive the trio’s sludgy shoegaze riffs straight into your skull.

Har Mar Superstar are experts when it comes to gettin’ weird. We met up with Mr. Superstar himself, Sean Tillman, and trumpeter Jake Baldwin to see what might happen if we paired up a handful of our wildest Devices with trumpet and vocals...

In SQÜRL’s music, the twisted scraping of industrial wreckage (to my ears the byproduct of musician/filmmaker Jim Jarmusch’s northeast Ohio upbringing) gives way to uneasy drones seemingly stuck in time like crestfallen Lake Erie tides fighting a losing battle against subzero temperatures before resolving at last into saturated but sparkling reverberated arpeggios. It’s what The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly might have sounded like if Ennio Morricone booked studio time with Steve Albini and hired Sunn O))) as session musicians...

Here's seventeen of my favorite tracks by EarthQuaker Devices artists, in no particular order. I tried to pick current tunes that are a good starting point for each artist, but sometimes old favorites die hard...

“[Pedals] inspire me to do things differently. It’s such a big part of what I do and how I create,” says Paramore guitarist Taylor York.

We caught up with the guitarist of Nashville pop-punk sensations Paramore to check out the gear he uses to bring to life the band’s stadium-sized hooks stuffed with enough ear candy to make every day feel like Halloween.

It’s not every day we get invited to kick it with producers immortalized in Beastie Boys lyrics. We met up with Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, and Hello Nasty engineer / producer Mario Caldato at his Hollywood home studio to dig through his endless collection of gear, in search of the perfect party rockin’ piece. And we found something...

“For live stuff, I stick with pedals that are going to be the most useful,” says Pallbearer’s Brett Campbell. As the frontman for the Arkansas sludgelords, Campbell’s ideal tone is much like his powerful vocal delivery, “heavy…warm, and clear.” To achieve his signature sound, Campbell needs gear that can keep up with his low A-E-A-D-F#-B tuning. “[The Hoof] is very controllable for a fuzz,” he says...

Ho ho ho, pedal devotees! During this most wonderful time, we took to the streets to ask some of our esteemed artists which songs get them in the holiday spirit. From traditional songs to rock n roll renditions to Run DMC, our artists offered up quite a variety of holiday hits...

Akron, Ohio gets a lot of credit for being LeBron James’ hometown. More impressive still is the fact that we’re also home to the world’s heaviest surf band, The Beyonderers. Not too shabby considering Lake Erie is our only surfable body of water. Put a championship ring on that, why don’t you?

Kaitlin Wolfberg’s violin transcends time and space. The prominent Los Angeles-based musican (whose recording credits include spots on albums by Dweezil Zappa and The dB’s) was kind enough to dazzle us with this performance of her tune “Lazy Bones,” recorded live at Juan Alderete’s 5 Starr Sound Labs...

Finding a guitar sound that sits well in the mix is vital for Queens of the Stone Age multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita. He takes flight on the (now discontinued, sadly) Monarch overdrive, using its active Treble and Bass controls to cut and boost his way into the dense three-guitar conversation without speaking out of turn, so to speak...

When we visited RYAT in Los Angeles, she treated us to this somber improvisation titled, “Resonation After the Earthquake Improv.” Here McGheehan’s dreamy vocal floats among subtle reverb-laden Fender Rhodes chords, courtesy of the Afterneath, while the Rainbow Machine (with all knobs set to noon) acts as a tasteful double tracking effect...

I don’t think Mike Scheidt is going to like that we’re calling his interview “Ninja Powers”, because he is pretty much the most humble person I’ve ever met in my life. He’ll never utter a bad word about any person, band, or piece of gear, bristles when anyone says Yob is better than any other band, and even assured me at one point that he knows “exactly jack and shit...”

“That Bias knob is everything,” says Queens of the Stone Age bassist Michael Schuman, pointing at his Dirt Transmitter. Since discovering the Dirt Transmitter as a suitable stompbox replacement for the timeless sound of the Ampex 351 preamp, it has earned a place in his rig in with both QOTSA and his band Mini Mansions...